Yahoo! And Samsung Form Multi-year Partnership To Deliver Interactive TV

Yahoo! (NASDAQ:YHOO) and Samsung today announced an expanded multi-year partnership to integrate Yahoo!’s Broadcast Interactivity platform into Samsung 2012 Smart TVs. Yahoo! Broadcast Interactivity, powered by its automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, SoundPrint ^TM, will be deployed in Samsung’s SyncPlus platform, enabling new opportunities for intelligent content discovery, advertising and engagement, bringing an unprecedented level of interactivity in the living room.

With this agreement, Samsung Smart TV owners will receive real-time, actionable content that runs alongside and complements TV shows and commercials. TV viewers will see subtle, on-screen prompts informing them that additional content can be accessed. With the touch of a remote, connected tablet or phone, Samsung Smart TV viewers can easily surface content or offers related to the TV shows and commercials they are watching.

In addition, TV programmers can provide complementary content like trivia, additional show insights, commerce or interactive gaming to extend engagement. Showtime Networks and National Geographic Channel are two of the initial TV programming partners.

The partnership also creates new forms of advertising by extending traditional 30-second commercials into immediate actions. With broadcast interactivity-enabled commercials, advertisers can embed calls-to-action for downloading apps or digital media, providing coupons, ordering samples, reading reviews or viewing product information.

“By combining watching TV with engaging content, we can change the way audiences are entertained and informed,” said Ron Jacoby, vice president of Connected TV at Yahoo!. “We are thrilled that our expanded partnership with Samsung extends our platform’s footprint, enabling our content partners and advertisers to reach many more consumers. Content owners can augment their programming, and advertisers can create compelling calls-to-action that allow audiences to engage on marketing messages the moment they are delivered.”

“Today, consumers are engaging in interactive TV program experiences more and more,” said Eric Anderson, vice president of content and product solutions at Samsung Electronics America, Inc. “Samsung’s SyncPlus service combined with Yahoo! Broadcast Interactivity and SoundPrint will provide consumers with a very entertaining experience. We are very pleased to partner with Yahoo! and we look forward to a successful collaboration in the years to come.”

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